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[Update: 1:35pm ET, August 10, 2019] Universal Pictures has now pulled the planned September 27 release of its satirical thriller, The Hunt, Deadline Hollywood reports. Here is the studio's statement:

While Universal Pictures had already paused the marketing campaign for The Hunt, after thoughtful consideration, the studio has decided to cancel our plans to release the film. We stand by our filmmakers and will continue to distribute films in partnership with bold and visionary creators, like those associated with this satirical social thriller, but we understand that now is not the right time to release this film.

Co-star Hilary Swank, appearing at the Locarno Film Festival, declined to discuss The Hunt or the surrounding controversy, according to Variety. However, she did say, "No one's seen the film. You can't really have a conversation about it without understanding what it’s about."

My take: Swank is correct that it's a bit unfair to pass judgement on a film few people have actually seen. Trailers are just marketing tools and can often be quite different in tone from the actual film. That said, this is probably a smart move on the part of Universal, given the current socio-political climate.

Original story 1:45pm ET, August 8, 2019:

Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Universal Pictures has temporarily ceased its marketing campaign for its upcoming satirical thriller, The Hunt, in the wake of three recent US mass shootings that claimed the lives of more than 30 people. The film stars GLOW's Betty Gilpin and Oscar winner Hilary Swank as two women from opposite ends of the political spectrum hunting each other—essentially a modern update of the classic short story, "The Most Dangerous Game."

“Out of sensitivity to the attention on the country’s recent shooting tragedies, Universal Pictures and the filmmakers of The Hunt have temporarily paused its marketing campaign and are reviewing materials as we move forward,” a representative for the studio told Deadline.

Delays like this have become something of a standard operating procedure for Hollywood over the last 20+ years as the industry grapples with how to navigate the dark reality of gun violence in America. Back in 1999, for instance, Buffy the Vampire Slayer postponed airing the episode "Earshot" in the wake of the Columbine High School massacre. Warner Bros postponed the release and recut a scene for its 2012 film Gangster Squad because of the Aurora shooting. And just last year, the television adaptation of Heathers was pushed back, recut, and nearly cancelled in light of the Parkland shooting. When writing about Universal's decision with The Hunt,Deadline notes even more examples—from Arnold Schwarzenegger's Collateral Damage shifting after September 11, 2001 and the 2017 Death Wish remake delayed following the mass shooting in Las Vegas.

Written by LOST's Damon Lindelof and Nick Cuse, The Hunt may have been primed for controversy even before real-world tragedies occurred. The film is about 12 strangers who wake up in a clearing with no idea where they are or how they got there. They soon discover they are "prey" at an exclusive resort called The Manor, where the uber-wealthy come to hunt human beings—although Hilary Swank's high-end executive (who masterminded the whole thing) scoffs that they should hardly be considered "beings." Things really get interesting when the "hunted" get their own weapons and start fighting back.

It's not a particularly new idea since Richard Connell's "The Most Dangerous Game" was first published in 1924 and has spawned countless film and television interpretations of the basic concept over the ensuing decades. But there's of course a twist in this case: the hunted all hail from red states ("deplorables"), and the hunters are purportedly "liberals"—albeit of the super-entitled uber-wealthy variety. "We pay for everything so the country belongs to us," Swank's character declares in the film's trailer. Various teasers had previously aired on TV (including on CNN during the recent Democratic debates) and remain online (embedded below).

It's worth noting that this character's statement, and her refusal to see the hunted as fully human beings, are not even remotely representative of a liberal stance—nor a traditionally conservative one.

Needless to say, Fox News has been having a field day with the film's story. We'll wait to see the film and judge for ourselves whether it ultimately works as satirical entertainment or not, and whether it does, indeed, cross any cultural lines. As always, "good taste" can be very subjective—is The Hunt any better or worse than The Purge franchise, for instance? (Jason Blum produced both, along with Get Out.) But given the current political environment headlined by peak partisan tensions and a nation trying to simultaneously grieve and seek solutions following recent mass shootings in El Paso, Texas; Dayton, Ohio; and Gilroy, California, Universal's decision to pull back on its marketing campaign seems like a wise business decision.

For now, The Hunt will still open as originally scheduled on September 27, 2019.

"The Hunt" sounds like complete shit. Who would find that entertaining?

Never mind stopping the marketing. It would be better in the long run to just cancel the release. I can't imagine a time in the near future where this wouldn't be a wholly unpalatable and horrific thing to be showing the public.

Man, I'm not normally one to rage against movies existing over their content but I just watched that trailer and this looks like the very opposite of what America needs right now, no matter what part of America or its political divides you're from. Yikes. Shootings or no shootings, I will not be paying to see this movie.

"The Hunt" sounds like complete shit. Who would find that entertaining?

Never mind stopping the marketing. It would be better in the long run to just cancel the release. I can't imagine a time in the near future where this wouldn't be a wholly unpalatable and horrific thing to be showing the public.

It's all about controversy. They know the script is barely worth the paper it's printed on, but they also know that controversy and outrage can work wonders at the box office. Shootings or no, this film will probably make a small bundle purely off people looking for something to get mad at.

They have been making variations on this theme for ages. It's hardly new. Besides the ones mentioned in the article there was at least a JCVD version of this and a Steve Austin version. And probably more I can't think of off the top of my head. The only difference with this one is that they seem to be playing up the current political divide as part of the story.

I had the same aversion of anything Lindelof after Lost but recently saw The Leftovers which has awesome writing. Left me scratching my head... is he a good writer actually, or did his co-writers make it so? (Leaning towards the latter.) Which means this one could be enjoyable regardless of Lindelof's involvement.

They have been making variations on this theme for ages. It's hardly new. Besides the ones mentioned in the article there was at least a JCVD version of this and a Steve Austin version. And probably more I can't think of off the top of my head. The only difference with this one is that they seem to be playing up the current political divide as part of the story.

Agreed "purge" movies (poor people die as sport for the rich) aren't something new. And they are very hit or miss.

Today's news was inspired by a prior episode of Bojack Horseman about gun violence. Paraphrased...

"Okay, look. If we can retake the gunfight scene somewhere outside of a shopping mall, we should be able to avoid any negative attention after today's news. Let's have it in a baseball stadium-"*phones buzz, everyone looks*"Awwwww. Okay, well, what about a movie theatre-"*phones buzz, everyone looks*"Oh...dammit! No....Alright. Trailer park?"*phones buzz*"Sigh...okay, forget it."

They have been making variations on this theme for ages. It's hardly new. Besides the ones mentioned in the article there was at least a JCVD version of this and a Steve Austin version. And probably more I can't think of off the top of my head. The only difference with this one is that they seem to be playing up the current political divide as part of the story.

They have been making variations on this theme for ages. It's hardly new. Besides the ones mentioned in the article there was at least a JCVD version of this and a Steve Austin version. And probably more I can't think of off the top of my head. The only difference with this one is that they seem to be playing up the current political divide as part of the story.

They aren't "playing up the current political divide" so much as completely rewriting jt. Evidently it has cast the uber-wealthy as liberals and as aggressors and the flyover shitheads as the oppressed RealAmericans.

They aren't "playing up the current political divide" so much as completely rewriting jt. Evidently it has cast the uber-wealthy as liberals and as aggressors and the flyover shitheads as the oppressed RealAmericans.

Can't tell if "flyover shitheads" is an ironic rephrasing of "hardly considered beings" or is actually serious. Either way, great job recreating the attitudes of the movie!

"The Hunt" sounds like complete shit. Who would find that entertaining?

Never mind stopping the marketing. It would be better in the long run to just cancel the release. I can't imagine a time in the near future where this wouldn't be a wholly unpalatable and horrific thing to be showing the public.

"Series 7: The Contenders" basically mashed up TMDG with reality TV, to what I recall as an enjoyable, albeit dark, movie. So this could be something similar. I don't get that impression though.

They aren't "playing up the current political divide" so much as completely rewriting jt. Evidently it has cast the uber-wealthy as liberals and as aggressors and the flyover shitheads as the oppressed RealAmericans.

Can't tell if "flyover shitheads" is an ironic rephrasing of "hardly considered beings" or is actually serious. Either way, great job recreating the attitudes of the movie!

They're my family and neighbors. Lots of them are motivated by bigotry. Lots of them dream of any excuse to shoot and kill people not like them. Frequently enough, one of them acts on it. This script seems designed to pander to them and reinforce their desired message of oppression.

It's like a German propaganda film about Jews victimizing poor red-blooded Germans in 1938.

Slightly off topic, but I'm really eating up the dissonance between the movie's attempt at class consciousness (wealthy elites!), the misunderstanding of "elite" as being about culture and not class (They're all small town red staters, the only place rich people who never leave the house think working class people exist), and how that misunderstanding never stopped the people replying to the trailer from seeing it as a movie where leftists hunt down conservatives. It's S-tier bait, I love it.

They have been making variations on this theme for ages. It's hardly new. Besides the ones mentioned in the article there was at least a JCVD version of this and a Steve Austin version. And probably more I can't think of off the top of my head. The only difference with this one is that they seem to be playing up the current political divide as part of the story.

My favorite is "Hard Target". A terrible movie that for some reason I find enjoyable to watch.

"The Hunt" sounds like complete shit. Who would find that entertaining?

Never mind stopping the marketing. It would be better in the long run to just cancel the release. I can't imagine a time in the near future where this wouldn't be a wholly unpalatable and horrific thing to be showing the public.

I only have Netflix, Prime, and TPB; but have you seen the shit that flies for programming on broadcast television and 2nd tier cable channels. It's all trash. The only current broadcast show I have been interested in the past few years is ST:Discovery, and that's just 1 hour out of 168 they have to fill each week. And even STD is cycles of disappointment and settling for mediocrity.

Delays like this have become something of a standard operating procedure for Hollywood over the last 20+ years as the industry grapples with how to navigate the dark reality of gun violence in America. Back in 1999, for instance, Buffy the Vampire Slayer postponed airing the episode "Earshot" in the wake of the Columbine High School massacre. Warner Bros postponed the release and recut a scene for its 2012 film Gangster Squad because of the Aurora shooting. And just last year, the television adaptation of Heathers was pushed back, recut, and nearly cancelled in light of the Parkland shooting. When writing about Universal's decision with The Hunt, Deadline notes even more examples—from Arnold Schwarzenegger's Collateral Damage shifting after September 11, 2001 and the 2017 Death Wish remake delayed following the mass shooting in Las Vegas.

Let's not forget the advertising for the American release of the Japanese anime "Metropolis" being pulled after 9/11.

Delays like this have become something of a standard operating procedure for Hollywood over the last 20+ years as the industry grapples with how to navigate the dark reality of gun violence in America. Back in 1999, for instance, Buffy the Vampire Slayer postponed airing the episode "Earshot" in the wake of the Columbine High School massacre. Warner Bros postponed the release and recut a scene for its 2012 film Gangster Squad because of the Aurora shooting. And just last year, the television adaptation of Heathers was pushed back, recut, and nearly cancelled in light of the Parkland shooting. When writing about Universal's decision with The Hunt, Deadline notes even more examples—from Arnold Schwarzenegger's Collateral Damage shifting after September 11, 2001 and the 2017 Death Wish remake delayed following the mass shooting in Las Vegas.

Let's not forget the advertising for the American release of the Japanese anime "Metropolis" being pulled after 9/11.

The Bush album "Golden State" was originally named "Speed Kills" before 9/11. It killed the October 2001 release and most of the marketing was pulled.